brown, and the atmosphere of a bright yellow colour. The mixture was then heated up to 100°, and the unoccupied end of the tube cooled to 0°; by degrees the mixture lost its dark colour, and a very fluid ethereal-looking substance condensed. It was not miscible with a small portion of the sulphuric acid which lay beneath it; but when returned on to the mass of salt and acid, it was gradually absorbed, rendering the mixture of a much deeper colour even than itself
Euchlorine thus obtained is a very fluid transparent substance, of a deep yellow colour. A tube containing a portion of it in the clean end, was opened at the opposite extremity; there was a rush of euchlorine vapour, but the salt plugged up the aperture: whilst clearing this away, the whole tube burst with a violent explosion, except the small end in a cloth in my hand, where the euchlorine previously lay, but the fluid had all disappeared.
Nitrous Oxide.—Some nitrate of ammonia, previously made as dry as could be by partial decomposition by heat in the air, was sealed up in a bent tube, and then heated in one end, the other being preserved cool. By repeating the distillation once or twice in this way, it was found, on after-examination, that very little of the salt remained undecomposed. The process requires care. I have had many explosions with very strong tubes, and at considerable risk.
When the tube is cooled, it is found to contain two fluids, and a very compressed atmosphere. The heavier fluid on examination proved to be water, with a little acid and nitrous oxide in solution; the other was nitrous oxide. It appears in a very liquid, limpid, colourless state; and so volatile, that the warmth of the hand generally makes it disappear in vapour. The application of ice and salt condenses abundance of it into the liquid state again. It boils readily by the difference of temperature between 50° and 0°. It does not appear to have any tendency to solidify at -10°. Its refractive power is very much less than that of water, and less than any fluid that has yet been obtained in these experiments, or than any known fluid. A tube being opened in the air, the nitrous oxide immediately burst into vapour. Another tube was opened under wate; the vapour being collected and examined proved to be nitrous oxide gas. A gauge being introduced into a tube,
